Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a display device, and more particularly, to a display device that generates sound by vibrating a display panel.
Description of the Related Art
With the development of various portable electronic devices, such as a mobile communication terminal and a notebook computer, a requirement for a display device applicable thereto is increasing.
The display devices include a liquid crystal display device, an electroluminescence display device, a light emitting diode display device, and an organic light emitting diode display device.
Among these display devices, the liquid crystal display (LCD) device typically includes an array substrate including an array of thin film transistors, an upper substrate including a color filter layer and/or a black matrix, etc., and a liquid crystal material layer formed therebetween, wherein an alignment state of the liquid crystal is controlled according to an electric field applied between two electrodes of a pixel area, and thus, the transmittance of light is adjusted to display images. In addition, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device has advantages of a high response speed, high light emitting efficiency, high brightness, and wide viewing angle by using self-light emitting organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).
Meanwhile, a set apparatus or finished product including such a display device as described above may include, for example, a television (TV), a computer monitor, or an advertising panel. Such a display device or set apparatus may include a sound output device, such as a speaker, for generating and outputting sound relating to output images.
It is typical that a company that manufactures a display device, such as a liquid crystal display device or an organic light emitting diode display device, manufactures only the display panel or display device excluding sound functionality, while another company manufactures a speaker and assembles the speaker with the manufactured display device, so as to complete a set apparatus capable of outputting images and sound.
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a speaker included in a related art display device. As shown in FIG. 1, a related art display device 1 includes a speaker 2 disposed at a rear part or a lower part of the display panel. In this structure, sound generated by the speaker 2 does not progress directly toward a viewer, who is viewing an image from the front side of the display device 1, but instead progresses toward the rear part or the lower part of the display panel rather than a front part of the display panel on which the images are being displayed.
Further, when sound generated from the speaker 2 progresses toward the rear part or the lower part of the display panel, the sound quality may be degraded due to an interference with sound reflected by walls, floors, or other surfaces at the rear of or below the display panel.
Also, sound generated by a speaker included in the related art display device is not oriented toward a viewer of the display device and may thus undergo diffraction, which degrades the sound localization. Moreover, in configuring a set apparatus, such as a TV, a speaker may occupy an undesirably large amount of space, which imposes a restriction on the design and spatial arrangement of the set apparatus.
Therefore, there has been an increasing requirement for technology which can improve the quality of sound output from a display device and prevent the viewer's immersion from being disturbed.